The present invention relates generally to selective membranes and relates more particularly to selective membranes having a high fouling resistance.
It is known that dissolved substances can be separated from their solvents by the use of various types of selective membranes, such selective membranes including—listed in order of increasing pore size—reverse osmosis membranes, ultrafiltration membranes and microfiltration membranes. One use to which reverse osmosis membranes have previously been put is in the desalination of brackish water or seawater to provide large volumes of relatively non-salty water suitable for industrial, agricultural or home use. What is involved in the desalination of brackish water or seawater using reverse osmosis membranes is literally a filtering out of salts and other dissolved ions or molecules from the salty water by forcing the salty water through a reverse osmosis membrane whereby purified water passes through the membrane while salts and other dissolved ions and molecules do not pass through the membrane. Osmotic pressure works against the reverse osmosis process, and the more concentrated the feed water, the greater the osmotic pressure which must be overcome.
A reverse osmosis membrane, in order to be commercially useful in desalinating brackish water or seawater on a large scale, must possess certain properties. One such property is that the membrane have a high salt rejection coefficient. In fact, for the desalinated water to be suitable for many commercial applications, the reverse osmosis membrane should have a salt rejection capability of at least about 97%. Another important property of a reverse osmosis membrane is that the membrane possess a high flux characteristic, i.e., the ability to pass a relatively large amount of water through the membrane at relatively low pressures. Typically, the flux for the membrane should be greater than 10 gallons/ft2-day (gfd) at a pressure of 800 psi for seawater and should be greater than 15 gfd at a pressure of 220 psi for brackish water. For certain applications, a rejection rate that is less than that which would otherwise be desirable may be acceptable in exchange for higher flux and vice versa.
One common type of reverse osmosis membrane is a composite membrane comprising a microporous support and a thin polyamide film formed on the microporous support. Typically, the polyamide film is formed by an interfacial polymerization of a polyfunctional amine and a polyfunctional acyl halide.
An example of the aforementioned composite polyamide reverse osmosis membrane is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,277,344, inventor Cadotte, which issued Jul. 7, 1981, and which is incorporated herein by reference. The aforementioned patent describes an aromatic polyamide film which is the interfacial reaction product of an aromatic polyamine having at least two primary amines substituents with an aromatic acyl halide having at least three acyl halide substituents. In the preferred embodiment, a porous polysulfone support is coated with m-phenylenediamine in water. After removal of excess m-phenylenediamine solution from the coated support, the coated support is covered with a solution of trimesoyl chloride dissolved in “FREON” TF solvent (trichlorotrifluoroethane). The contact time for the interfacial reaction is 10 seconds, and the reaction is substantially complete in 1 second. The resulting polysulfone/polyamide composite is then air-dried.
Although the Cadotte membrane described above exhibits good flux and good salt rejection, various approaches have been taken to further improve the flux and salt rejection of composite polyamide reverse osmosis membranes. In addition, other approaches have been taken to improve the resistance of said membranes to chemical degradation and the like. Many of these approaches have involved the use of various types of additives to the solutions used in the interfacial polycondensation reaction.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,984, inventor Tomaschke, which issued Oct. 10, 1989, and which is incorporated herein by reference, there is disclosed an aromatic polyamide membrane formed by (a) coating a microporous support with an aqueous solution comprising (i) an essentially monomeric, aromatic, polyamine reactant having at least two amine functional groups and (ii) a monofunctional, monomeric (i.e., polymerizable) amine salt to form a liquid layer on the microporous support, (b) contacting the liquid layer with an organic solvent solution of an essentially monomeric, aromatic, amine-reactive reactant comprising a polyfunctional acyl halide or mixture thereof, wherein the amine-reactive reactant has, on the average, at least about 2.2 acyl halide groups per reactant molecule, and (c) drying the product of step (b), generally in an oven at about 60° C. to 110° C. for about 1 to 10 minutes, so as to form a water permeable membrane.
Other patents disclosing the use of additives in the solutions employed in the interfacial polycondensation reaction include: U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,291, inventors Chau et al., which issued Jan. 8, 1991; U.S. Pat. No. 5,576,057, inventors Hirose et al., which issued Nov. 19, 1996; U.S. Pat. No. 5,614,099, inventors Hirose et al., which issued Mar. 25, 1997; U.S. Pat. No. 4,950,404, inventor Chau, which issued Aug. 21, 1990; U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,885, inventors Tran et al., which issued May 16, 1989; U.S. Pat. No. 6,245,234, inventors Koo et al., which issued Jun. 12, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 6,063,278, inventors Koo et al., which issued May 16, 2000; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,015,495, inventors Koo et al., which issued Jan. 18, 2000, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Another approach which has been taken to improve the performance of a composite polyamide reverse osmosis membrane is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,178,766, inventors Ikeda et al., which issued Jan. 12, 1993, and which is incorporated herein by reference. According to Ikeda et al., the salt rejection rate of a composite polyamide reverse osmosis membrane is said to be improved by covalently bonding to the polyamide film of said membrane a compound having a quaternary nitrogen atom. Said quaternary nitrogen atom-containing compound is bonded to the polyamide film through a reactive group present in the compound, said reactive group being an epoxy group, an aziridine group, an episulfide group, a halogenated alkyl group, an amino group, a carboxylic group, a halogenated carbonyl group, or a hydroxy group.
One problem encountered by many of the various composite polyamide reverse osmosis membranes described above is fouling, i.e., the undesired adsorption of solutes to the membrane, thereby causing a reduction in flux exhibited by the membrane. Fouling is typically caused by hydrophobic-hydrophobic and/or ionic interactions between the polyamide film of the membrane and those solutes present in the solution being filtered. As can readily be appreciated, fouling is undesirable not only because it results in a reduction in flux performance for the membrane but also because it requires that operating pressures be varied frequently to compensate for the variations in flux experienced during said reduction. In addition, fouling also requires that the membrane be cleaned frequently.
One approach to the problem of fouling is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,177,011, inventors Hachisuka et al., which issued Jan. 23, 2001, and which is incorporated herein by reference. According to Hachisuka et al., fouling can be reduced by coating the polyamide film of the membrane with at least one substance selected from the group consisting of an electrically neutral organic substance and a polymer that has a nonionic hydrophilic group, said organic substance or polymer preferably being a polyvinyl alcohol.
Another approach to the problem of fouling is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,280,853, inventor Mickols, which issued Aug. 28, 2001, and which is incorporated herein by reference. Mickols discloses a composite membrane that is said to have an improved resistance to fouling, said composite membrane comprising a porous support and a crosslinked polyamide surface having polyalkylene oxide groups grafted thereto.
Still another approach to the problem of fouling is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,913,694, inventors Koo et al., which issued Jul. 5, 2005, and which is incorporated herein by reference. Koo et al. discloses a selective membrane having a high fouling resistance. In one embodiment, the selective membrane is a composite polyamide reverse osmosis membrane in which a hydrophilic coating has been applied to the polyamide layer of the membrane, the hydrophilic coating being made by (i) applying to the membrane a quantity of a polyfunctional epoxy compound, the polyfunctional epoxy compound comprising at least two epoxy groups, and (ii) then, cross-linking the polyfunctional epoxy compound in such a manner as to yield a water-insoluble polymer.